The Justice Department should look into the Stand Your Ground laws that kept Florida police from arresting the man who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, New Yorks senior senator said Sunday.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said he wrote the Justice Department asking them to expand their review of Martins death to include the impact of Floridas and other states Stand Your Ground Laws.

The laws generally grant immunity to anyone who uses deadly force, inside or outside of his home, if the shooter can reasonably claim he was defending himself.

The laws all passed very, very quickly and I think the states who passed them, if they find the real facts, may decide to repeal them, Schumer said, noting a survey of 13 cases by the Florida Sun-Sentinel that found 12 of the victims had not been armed.

Florida was the first of 21 states to pass such laws since 2005. The Sunshine States version allows police on the scene to decide whether they believe a shooters claims of self-defense.

In Trayvon Martins case, police have said they did the right thing by not charging 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a member of a citizens' watch, with the shooting.

Court-watchers say in other cases, cops make an arrest and then let the courts figure out if the use of deadly force was legally justified.

Schumer said he wants Justice officials to see whether these new laws actually increase violence rather than decrease violence, and whether they actually prevent law enforcement from prosecuting cases where real crime has been committed.

Zimmerman told police Martin attacked him after he had given up chasing the boy and he was returning to his truck. He had a bloody nose and blood on the back of his head, according to police.

Martin's family doubt Zimmerman's story and argue if the shooter was black there is no doubt he would have been arrested.

2. pro-gun folks (of which I include myself), in defending “stand your ground”, will feel the need to defend Zimmerman. I think that may be a mistake. I think Zimmerman was actually advancing on the kid, and even the 911 dispatcher told him not to. I just hope that Florida law enforcement takes a closer look at Zimmerman’s claims.

Imagine yourself as a teenager walking home at night, and seeing some guy following you in his car. He continues to follow you even as you start running. The kids probably thinking Zimmerman’s a child molester trying to get him into his car, perhaps if Zimmerman catches up to him, he fights back. Then Zimmerman uses that as he justification for shooting the kid. This is as equally plausible as Zimmerman’s story. Unfortunately, both sides may have political motivation for attacking or defending what happened.

Chuckie, you might want to check what law was actually involved before you open your mouth and make ignorant statements. This had nothing to do with Stand Your Ground, but with justifiable self defence-

According to Florida Statute 776.032 :
776.032 Immunity from criminal prosecution and civil action for justifiable use
of force.
(1) A person who uses force as permitted in s. 776.012, s. 776.013, or s. 776.031 is justified in using such force and is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action for the use of such force, unless the person against whom force was used is a law enforcement officer, as defined in s.943.10(14), who was acting in the performance of his or her official duties and the officer identified himself or herself in accordance with any applicable law or the person using force knew or reasonably should have known that the person was a law enforcement officer. As used in this subsection, the term criminal prosecution includes arresting, detaining in custody, and charging or prosecuting the defendant.
(2) A law enforcement agency may use standard procedures for investigating the use of force as described in subsection (1), but the agency may not arrest the person for using force unless it determines that there is probable cause that the force that was used was unlawful.

Imagine yourself as a teenager walking home at night, and seeing some guy following you in his car. He continues to follow you even as you start running. The kids probably thinking Zimmermans a child molester trying to get him into his car, perhaps if Zimmerman catches up to him, he fights back. Then Zimmerman uses that as he justification for shooting the kid. This is as equally plausible as Zimmermans story,

In that circumstance Martin would have more right to "stand his ground" than Zimmerman

Perhaps this is the end game of all the fake outrage over this incident. The couldn’t attack the second amendment with ‘Fast and Furious’ so now they’ll try the racist approach.

Too bad that the “stand your ground” law wasn’t even a factor in this incident. When all the facts are presented, I think it’ll be clear that this was a simple case of self-defense on Zimmerman’s part. We ALL have that right, though the left hates that fact.

This law does not even apply in this case. J. Jackson was down here saying we need to ban guns. I guess the criminal Fast and Furious plan backfired for them so they are using this case to push banning guns. America says we are keeping our guns and we are buying lot more lately.

I think itll be clear that this was a simple case of self-defense on Zimmermans part.

If you listen to Zimmerman's call to the police, you will hear that Zimmerman describes Martin running away from him. Zimmerman continues to stalk Martin and when Martin tries to defend himself Zimmerman kills him.

Except Martin didn’t have a gun. And Zimmerman wasn’t in a uniform or anything identifying himself as neighborhood watch.

There is no indication that Martin initiated the contact with Zimmerman, it appears that Zimmerman was following (stalking) Martin for enough time for several 911 calls to be made. He also knew the buzzwords to say on the 911 call, he’s acting strange, like he’s on drugs, he’s reaching into his waistband.

Martin has no criminal record we know of, wasn’t carrying a weapon, and wasn’t on drugs that we know of. To be honest, I’m not sure Zimmerman is that kind of guy I want “patrolling” in my neighborhood.

What prompted the kid, coming home from the store, to start beating on Zimmerman? The fact that Zimmerman was following him in his car, we don’t know if Zimmerman called him over. At some point, any kid is gonna fight back when he is scared enough. That doesn’t necessarily make if self defense for Zimmerman to shoot him. And by the way, Zimmerman was described as a “self appointed” neighborhood watch captain. Does that mean he was the only neighborhood watch guy, which makes him a cop wannabe.

Even the Guardian Angels wear identifying berets and jackets to identify themselves.

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